


In your arms, yes, I will fall

by The_Marshall



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 19:04:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18168863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Marshall/pseuds/The_Marshall
Summary: After the defeat of Metatron, Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter find themselves alone in the darkness, falling... falling... with all the time in the world to think.





	In your arms, yes, I will fall

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first published work, so please be kind to me!  
> Also, English is not my first language so there could be some mistakes.  
> Feel free to comment, advise, even criticize (possibly constructively).
> 
> Thank you and enjoy.

"Asriel!" she cried, overwhelmed by her terror while falling into the Abyss.  
She was falling into the darkness, the bright light of Metatron's body long gone. She could not see anything, the darkness was closing in on her almost phisically pressing on her body, on her face. She closed her eyes and clenched her arms around her chest, frightened like a child. For the first time in her life she was completely and utterly alone and she did not like it.  
And then she felt a large, warm hand on her arm. She instinctively opened her eyes but there was nothing to see in the dark.  
"I'm here, Marisa" she heard his whisper, calm and confident despite the blows to the head he suffered from the Regent; she knew his voice better than her own. The voice of the man she loved so much to betray her husband; a man she then hated for a long time, only to realize that that hatred was for herself more than it was for him. She realized just before the Fall that she never stopped loving him. Even when she was opposing him, fighting him... she always searched for his presence. She could not imagine a life without him in it, it did not matter in what vest; lover, enemy, ally.  
And Lyra... how stupid she had been, abandoning her child like that. A child so extraordinary, all the more special because she was the perfect mix between her and Asriel.  
She now felt Asriel's arms around her, keeping her close to his strong hard body.  
"I'm here" he said again, placing a sweet featherlike kiss on her temple. A strangled sob escaped her throat while she grasped at the arms surrounding her, terrified that he would let her go.  
"Don't leave me, Asriel" she begged, all her strength gone, bot physical and mental. She was broken; broken by the Fall, by the Darkness, by the knowledge that she would never see her daughter again. She and Asriel succeded in their purpose and freed the world from the tyranny of Heaven and they did it for Lyra. But all that was fading now with every inch they went deeper into the Abyss and all seemed so unimportant now next to the fact that Lyra was out of her grasp forever.  
She started crying.

Lord Asriel Belacqua did not know what to do. For once, he had run out of ideas. He clinged to the soft warm body between his arms, raising a hand to wipe out the tears from her eyes. He did not have a clue as to what he could say to calm her. He know why she was crying: Lyra.  
He was so proud of that little girl, though he would never admit it to anyone. He spent all his life trying to build a certain image of himself and the girl, just like her mother did all those years ago, almost made him forget everything.  
His thoughts drove back to that night, the night he first met Marisa Coulter.  
Her beauty had striken him first, then he heard her talking and he knew he was lost. She had that timid intelligence, that humble smartness that every high class woman should have; but behind her mask he could detect the fire burning inside her. She was dangerous, he could immediately tell. Like a jaguar, a lioness hiding in the grass ready to jump on an unaware prey. And the look she gave him! He could still see it, the gaze she threw across the room. Her eyes were calculating, icy, in utter contrast to the smile she kept on her lips for the benefit of the people around them.  
He stared back, feeling his insides warming up and his mind starting to run wild. Without even noticing, he strolled towards her, his own eyes now locked on her slender figure clad in that delicious golden dress. Everybody fell silent when he appeared; she turned her head again towards him, with a gesture so filled with grace and spontaneity that he almost believed it.  
Almost.  
Behind her eyelashes he could see her brain working, analizing everything at speed light.  
"You must be Marisa Coulter" he said, abruptly, barely bowing his head and carefully keeping his eyes locked on hers. She did not answer, her lips now forming a thin line and her eyebrows slightly furrowing. He sighed and straightened his tall figure to its full length.  
"I'm Asriel Belacqua" he finally introduced himself, staring at her with all the force of his black eyes and spotting the moment she recognized his name.  
"Ah" she indeed replied "the infamous Lord Asriel" he momentarily lost himself in her voice, so melodious that felt like a song to his ears.  
"I will admit my curiosity, after all the gossip I heard about you" she continued, her smile still in place. But he noticed the smug grin she was hiding in her eyes.  
That night was their undoing.  
Nine months later Lyra was born and they were fighting more and more everyday; the passion and the feelings they had was rapidly degenerating into rage and guilt and blame.  
Their doom was decided that night, they both knew it.  
And all he did from that night on, he did for her; despite her; beacuse of her. But everything he did he had her in mind. For, since that night, his life was hopelessly bound to hers.

And with this thought, he tightened his grip around her waist and whispered in her ear: "I know, Marisa, my love. I know".  
And while her cries quietly reduced to a soft whimper and then ceased completely in the safety of Asriel's arms, they continued to fall. And fall. And fall endlessly.


End file.
